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November 3rd, 2012 - OUR MONTHLY 4-hour ZAZENKAI!

PLEASE NOTE that OUR ANNUAL "AT HOME" 2-DAY ROHATSU RETREAT is currently scheduled for the weekend of December 8th & 9th, via live netcast. LET'S GET READY TO ROHATSU!

ALSO NOTE, DAYLIGHT SAVINGS CLOCKS HAVE ROLLED BACK IN EUROPE, and NEXT WEEK IN AMERICA.

Dear All,

Please 'sit-a-long' with our MONTHLY4-hourZAZENKAI, netcast LIVE8am to noon Japan time Saturday morning (that is New York 6pm to 10pm, Los Angeles 3pm to 7pm (Friday night), London 11pm to 3am and Paris midnight to 4am (early Saturday morning))

... to be visible at the following link during those times and any time thereafter ...

LIVE ZAZENKAI NETCAST at GOOGLE+ IS HERE:CLICK ON THE TAB ON LOWER RIGHT FOR 'FULL SCREEN

FOR THOSE NOT ALREADY MEMBERS OF THE CIRCLE WHO WISH TO JOIN TO SIT LIVE WITH A CAMERA, INSTRUCTIONS are posted AT THIS LINK. WE ARE NOW LIMITED TO 10 INDIVIDUALS WITH CAMERAS, BUT ANY NUMBER CAN WATCH LIVE 'ONE WAY' AND SIT-A-LONG VIA THE ABOVE SCREEN. IF JOINING WITH CAMERA, PLEASE MAKE SURE YOUR MICROPHONE IS MUTED:

Our Zazenkai consists of our chanting the 'Heart Sutra' and the 'Identity of Relative and Absolute (Sandokai)' in English (please download our Chant Book at the link below), some full floor prostrations (please follow along with me ... or a simple Gassho can be substituted if you wish), a little talk by me ... and we close with the 'Metta Chant', followed at the end with the 'Verse of Atonement' and 'The Four Vows'. Oh, and lots and lots of Zazen and walkin' Kinhin in between!

Please download and print out the Chants we will recite at the following link (PDF):

I STRONGLY SUGGEST THAT YOU POSITION YOUR ZAFU ON THE FLOOR IN A PLACE WHERE YOU ARE NOT STARING DIRECTLY AT THE COMPUTER SCREEN, BUT CAN GLANCE OVER AND SEE THE SCREEN WHEN NECESSARY. YOUR ZAFU SHOULD ALSO BE IN A POSITION WHERE YOU CAN SEE THE COMPUTER SCREEN WHILE STANDING IN FRONT OF THE ZAFU FOR THE CEREMONIES, AND HAVE ROOM FOR BOWING AND KINHIN.

ALSO, REMEMBER TO SET YOUR COMPUTER (& SCREEN SAVER) SO THAT IT DOES NOT SHUT OFF DURING THE 4 HOURS.

I hope you will join us ... an open Zafu is waiting. When we drop all thought of 'here' 'there' 'now' 'then' ... we are sitting all together!

I'm going to sit this zazenkai Sunday morning US time. I will miss you all tonight....

For Rohatsu on December 8 and 9, I will be sitting and serving as Doan on Saturday the 8th at Great River Zendo through the day and night, and will join you here at Treeleaf on Sunday the 9th.

Gassho
Yugen

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Please take all my comments with a grain of salt - I am a novice priest and anything I say is to be taken with a good dose of skepticism - Shodo Yugen

It was very nice to meet some of you live. It's nice to put a person in the place of an avatar! I even managed to sit for a pretty good while. I did have to get up to bathe my toddler and put him to bed during the dharma talk, so I will be rewatching that tonight.

It was very nice to meet some of you live. It's nice to put a person in the place of an avatar! I even managed to sit for a pretty good while. I did have to get up to bathe my toddler and put him to bed during the dharma talk, so I will be rewatching that tonight.

Thank you to all!

It was great to have you there Charle and yes, to put a face to the Avatar.

Gassho
Michael

RINDO SHINGEN
倫道 真現

As a trainee priest, please take any commentary by me on matters of the Dharma with a pinch of salt.